If you fall into a complete don’t (don’t get up, don’t drink water, don’t eat), you will most likely be dead in a week or so. If you do too much (like running endlessly through the Sahara), you’ll also find yourself knocking on Death’s door.
Either extreme is a move toward death. The ideal lies somewhere in between. Yoga and health are all about finding the balance between opposing forces. effort and rest. Elimination and assimilation. yang and yin. Day and night.
When we do not feel, when we are not aware of our inner state, the inevitable result is imbalance. Most of us have so little inner awareness that we don’t know we’re out of balance until something goes drastically wrong. As an example, most diseases spread in an acidic environment. Because we are not sensitive enough to sense when our bodies are acidic, we continue to consume foods that make our bodies even more acidic. If we could feel more deeply, we would instinctively know when our bodies are acidic and seek to bring them back into balance.
A body that is in balance craves that which keeps it in balance. On the other hand, a body that is out of balance craves that which makes it even more out of balance. So we can’t listen to the predictable wail of our cravings, but we have to feel and seek guidance, either from deep inside or from someone who knows better. Many things we think of as “normal” — pain, old age, senility, and perhaps even death — may actually be avoidable and unnecessary. The pains that we consider a natural function of aging are simply manifestations of imbalance. The inability to move freely, expansively, and forcefully has nothing directly to do with aging; it has to do with a lack of movement over time, coupled with an unbalanced diet, a rigid mind, and too brief dalliances with Spirit.
When we are not connected to our source light, when our minds are dogmatically stubborn, when our diets are acidic, and when we chronically ignore our bodies’ protests by slouching in chairs all day, our bodies become unbalanced and rigid, and! so we blame our lack of mobility on an invented villain called aging! Once you’re balanced, the job isn’t done. Whether it is the balance of the mind, body, or emotions, balance cannot be achieved and forgotten. When we stand on one leg in Vrksasana, we must remain vigilant. By the time our attention ceases and we congratulate ourselves for being balanced and upright, we have already begun to fall. Staying in balance requires as much vigilance as the first time it is achieved. Achieving and maintaining balance is the path, not the destination.
Aadil Paljivala ©2008